After years of dominance, reggaeton disappears from the Latin Grammys: The winners and everything that happened at the gala

The 2025 Latin Grammy Awards gala was a gift for Latin music lovers. In addition to announcing the winners in the most important categories, the night showcased the wide variety of genres and the high quality of talent that exists today.

Bad Bunny, Ca7riel, and Paco Amoroso arrived as the top nominees and left as the biggest winners, with five Latin Grammys each. There were no surprises there, except that Alejandro Sanz won Record of the Year for his song "Palmeras en el Jardín." "Forgive me, Benito, I stole it from you," said the Spanish singer-songwriter.

But what no one expected was that neither Benito, nor Karol G, nor even Rauw Alejandro would go on stage and leave without performing a single reggaeton chord.

And after decades of reign, the most popular genre of urban music in Spanish seems to have given way to an explosion of rhythms and even lyrics as diverse as the culture of Spanish and Portuguese speakers.

Carlos Santana, Raphael and the younger ones

The night began with the guitar of the great Carlos Santana, who played accompanied by Édgar Barrera, plus the voices of Maluma, Christian Nodal and Grupo Frontera.

Another veteran, the Spanish icon Raphael, performed a medley of his greatest hits, before receiving his Latin Grammy Person of the Year award from Gloria Estefan and Marco Antonio Solis "El Buki".

Pepe Aguilar was in charge of embracing the tradition of Mexican mariachi, with a presentation that referenced jaripeo.

Reggaeton artists expanded their reach to other genres. Karol G performed her song "Coleccionando Heridas" with El Buki. She also won Song of the Year and Best Tropical Song for "Si antes te hubiera conocido." Upon receiving her first award, she gave a moving speech promoting self-acceptance and rejecting the "noise" of criticism.

Earlier, Rauw Alejandro had demonstrated why he's considered the most complete Latin music artist of our time. El Zorro brought a small but powerful sample of his "Cosa Nuestra Tour" to the Latin Grammys stage. His performance had it all: culture, choreography, visuals, and music—especially music.

Bad Bunny also left reggaeton behind, performing his tropical song "Weltita" with Chuwi.

Benito also made everyone hug each other when he won the Latin Grammy for "DtMF".

Winners of five awards, Ca7riel and Paco Amoroso gave one of the most impactful performances, in their first appearance at the Latin Grammys.

The musical finale was provided by Los Tigres del Norte, the bosses of bosses, who performed their song "La Lotería", a tribute to immigrants.